Hearing damage compensation for GCHQ members

Public and commercial services union PCS has welcomed the announcement by the GCHQ communications centre that it will pay compensation to workers whose hearing has been damaged as a result of wearing inadequate headphones while listening to transmissions and telephone conversations.

Payments of up to £20,000 are being made. The charity Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) estimates that up to 1.3 million workers could be exposed to damaging levels of noise at work, and the case could have implications for other groups, like call-centre workers, who wear headphones.